Achieving urban water security is a major challenge for many countries. While several studies have assessed water security at a regional level, many studies have also emphasized the lack of assessment of water security and application of measures to achieve it at the urban level.
Recent studies that have focused on measuring urban water security are not holistic, and there is still no agreed-upon understanding of how to operationalize and identify an assessment framework to measure the current state and dynamics of water security. At present, there is also no clearly defined and widely endorsed definition of urban water security. To address this challenge, this study provides a systematic approach to better understand urban water security, with a working definition and an assessment framework to be applied in peri-urban and urban areas. The proposed working definition of urban water security is based on the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goal on water and sanitation and the human rights on water and sanitation. It captures issues of urban-level technical, environmental, and socio-economic indicators that emphasize credibility, legitimacy, and salience.
The assessment framework depends on four main dimensions to achieve urban water security: Drinking water and human beings, ecosystem, climate change and water-related hazards, and socio-economic factors (DECS). The framework further enables the analysis of relationships and trade-off between urbanization and water security, as well as between DECS indicators. Applying this framework will help governments, policy-makers, and water stakeholders to target scant resources more eff ectively and sustainably. The study reveals that achieving urban water security requires a holistic and integrated approach with collaborative stakeholders to provide a meaningful way to improve understanding and managing urban water security.

With Google’s Flutter framework continuing to grow in popularity for companies and developers alike, the need for an understanding of how to utilize the framework in a large-scale context has become more relevant than ever. The purpose of this thesis is to document the crucial steps most development teams using Flutter in a large-scale application will face. Additionally, a fully documented, large-scale reference application was generated so that other developers may use it as an aid when creating their own Flutter projects on a similar scale. Multiple steps were taken to ensure that optimal solutions were chosen for each aspect of the development process. For each of those aspects, a wide range of possible solutions were explored, compared and analysed. Finally, one of the possible solutions was chosen based on a wide range of scientific papers and community-generated sources. Additionally, an interview with an expert in the field was conducted to further validate those decisions. After the application was fully implemented, ten crucial aspects of the development process were identified. Those ten aspects are now explained in detail in this thesis. Ultimately, the knowledge provided by this thesis can act as a map for peers using Flutter in a large-scale context and help them overcome the crossroads they will most likely come to face.

The increasing public awareness of business related impacts on environmental and social well-being, be it positive or negative, are nowadays key drivers of corporate success. Internal and external business environments exert pressure and force transparency as well as responsible action in terms of resolving environmental and social impacts. In line with this, Porter and Kramer regard business behaviour that addresses societal needs and challenges, as the “new way to achieve economic success”.
However, whereas some companies “remain trapped in an out-dated approach to value creation” and restrict their CSR commitment to the compliance with governmental regulation, others proactively address stakeholder needs. By addressing these needs, companies can benefit from grasping the opportunity of enhanced cost efficiency and lowered risk or gaining competitive advantages through establishing unique value propositions, in a way that meets stakeholder demands. Apart from that, CSR performance can be seen as powerful tool to successfully influence stakeholder perceptions in terms of reputation, and thus an exceptional source of value creation. In addition to this, organisations can profit from win-win-win situations related to syncretic value creation by means of partnering with stakeholders. This, however, implies expanding the focus of cost- and risk-reduction towards increasing competitiveness through creating mutual benefits for environment, society and the economy alike.
Although a growing number of companies have recognised the advantages coming along with Corporate Social Responsibility engagement, the accompanying efforts have not been sufficiently mature yet. Due to the fact that many organizations apply a rather narrow and out-dated approach to value creation, they fail to achieve a balance between environmental, social and economic objectives. This, in turn, implies a restriction in their ability to exploit the full value creation potential that is related to CSR engagement. But even organisations applying a broader perspective of value creation, struggle to internalise the opportunities. This is mainly due the challenge of balancing and integrating economic and non-economic criteria. At the same time, organizations are facing the challenge of getting support from senior management and staff. Thus, in order to profit from adopting a ‘broad perspective’, firms must build a deep understanding of the benefits resulting from mutual value creation. However, the main challenge remains the systematic and strategy related integration of Corporate Social Responsibility strategies into core business processes. In respect to this, organizations have to take into account that “social and environment performance are almost certainly unique to each organization”. Thus, value creation in terms of CSR has to be understood as a highly complex set of cause-an-effect relationships among mediating variables and situational contingencies, which is too specific to rely on poorly structured and generic approaches.
In brief, organisations seem to struggle establishing an understanding that does not consider environmental, social and economic benefits as mutually exclusive. Notwithstanding, that such an understanding is established the complexity of factors influencing Corporate Social Responsibility impedes to balance between economic and non-economic criteria. Furthermore, organisations have difficulties to strategically integrate, manage and measure environmental and social performance drivers as well as outcome measures.

In 2015, the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Agreement provided a basis for considerable optimism for the fight against climate change and efforts to promote sustainable development, but their implementation remains an enormous challenge. Finance, in turn, plays a key role in implementation. This thesis thus seeks to provide new insights into the challenge of implementing the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda by examining pertinent financial flows while taking into considering that making use of thematic overlaps between these two agendas can help to leverage synergies, especially if financial flows take adequate account of these overlaps. Since energy plays an essential role in both the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda (in SDG 7 and beyond it), this thesis focuses on countries’ energy-related national commitments. Against this background, this thesis investigates the question which role energy plays in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and to what extent climate finance is considered in the context of the energy system transition. The key finding is that financial flow for renewable energy and energy efficiency improves globally with an unchanged track of non-renewable energy in the post-NDC period.

Usage of smart home solutions implies generation, processing, and storage of machine and personal data. Recently made public cases of data breaches and misuse increased peoples’ concerns of data security and decreased the trust in secure data handling and smart home technologies. Hence potential benefits are not exploited. It is therefore necessary to analyse how manufacturers can increase their online trust perception.
Requirements of (potential) customers of web based services for HVAC systems are identified using thematic analysis for 23 conducted interviews using online trust perception literature as basis. Manufacturer independent websites are derived as the most important online touch point for customers with manufacturers and products. Determined content and structure measures for online touch points managed by manufacturers derived to positively influence the manufacturer and manufacturer independent touch points regarding perception of trust. The derived trust concept must be evaluated in the following using the defined evaluation plan.

Digital competences are describing a set of skills, which are necessary to use digital devices and tools with an adequate degree of self-determination. With the ubiquitous digitization of our lives and our society it is important for every citizen to have digital competences. Therefor, it is necessary to educate those competences in schools. As one cannot assume teachers to have enough digital competences to well educate the children of todays classes, this master thesis tries to find out: How to shape the process of teaching digital competences to adolescents in German schools, focusing on including multiple parties from diverse backgrounds into the process? At first, the current situation of teaching digital competences in German schools is analyzed by means of a literature review. After the identification of the challenges within the German system, international best practices are examined. Therefor, four countries, which have reached high scores in the International Computer and Information Literacy Study are selected. Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark and the Republic of Korea are compared and possible chances for Germany identified. As the next step, expert interviews with divers parties, which have direct or indirect relation to the German education system, are held. The goal of the interviews is to generate ideas on how to support the education system by external help. At the end of the thesis the recommended approach of Motivating External People is presented. Several measures, such as teaching or mentoring students in a guest lecturer model; providing IT support for the hard- and software of the schools or creating Open Educational Resources as education material for the teachers are presented and possible third parties are named. As it is not possible to support the education system from the outside without education system internal persons, it is presented, what needs to change within the system to get the approach working. Therefor, not a complex and system changing approach is presented, but a combined top-down and bottom-up process to motivate external people to support.

Water risk assessment is becoming an essential part of any decision-making process in the business sector. In the world where freshwater resources are becoming scarcer, water risks are growing and causing high costs to businesses. Therefore, numerous frameworks, guidelines, methodologies, tools, and other approaches were developed during the last century. Various scholars have appeared to give an economic value or price for environment goods in order to understand trade-offs better. Nowadays, the corporate world tends to use different approaches to convert sustainability management data to the financial language of decision-makers. This study explores the possible ways for a company to measure the costs of water related risks. It examines how to convert water risks to financial risks using a Peruvian agricultural company. The results show, that from all today’s available frameworks, guidelines or tools there is no one commonly accepted and recognised as the best for water risk assessment and monetising. It was learned, that available tools could provide just a simple overview of possible water related risks and calculate their costs in a very general way. The work also highlights the importance of regular and appropriate data collection on the company level in order to be able to assess water risk related costs for the business.

The reinsurance market continues to face major challenges – at this point we would like to outline just one of these, by way of example. The renewal of reinsurance contracts effective 1st January 2020 seems to present an-other disappointment for the reinsurance sector. This development is surprising for a substantial hardening of prices and conditions, not only in the retrocession area but also in the primary (corporate) insurance market. As a rule, a price increase in the retrocession sector is initially followed by a price rise in the reinsurance industry, which then ultimately also occurs in the primary (corporate) insurance market. Yet the trend we are currently witnessing seems to have skipped over the reinsurers. This confronts the reinsurance market with the question of whether – and, if so, when – the price adjustments will also take effect in the case of reinsurance contracts. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research pro-jects. In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through or-ganisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung], a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance. There are seven researchers, two employees responsible for research management and one administrative employee currently on the staff of the Cologne Research Cen-tre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. Within the scope of its social and environmental responsibility, this year the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance dealt with the topics of climate protection, sustaina-bility and equality. Because these topics are at once global, national and individual missions, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance developed ideas and took measures to actively practice climate protection, sustainability and equality. In this ef-fort, great importance was attached to maintaining the level of quality while at the same time pursuing the objectives the Research Centre had set for itself in the above-men-tioned areas. While it is still in its beginnings, our initiative in the field of climate protec-tion and sustainability is manifested particularly in the most sustainable management of resources and travel we can achieve.
We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, ivwKöln [the Institute of Insurance Studies Cologne] and the employees of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.

The 12th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung] was held 5th July 2019 in Niederkassel, near Cologne. Some 80
representatives of the (re)insurance companies involved in the Sponsoring Group took part in the meeting, along with guests. Offered for the fifth time as part of the
Annual Meeting, the Researchers’ Corner gave eight members of academic staff at the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance an opportunity to deliver a presentation on their respective current research projects. In three sessions – each featuring 2-3 parallel lectures with posters – the most important results of the scientific studies by the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance were presented and discussed. The heterogeneity of the topics presented by academic staff reflects the dovetailing of Cologne Research Centre with reinsurance practice.
Session 1
a) Manuel Dietmann (M.Sc.): The increasing importance of the riskmanagement function in insurance companies
b) Robert Joniec (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): How is the reinsurance cycle doing?
c) Wolfgang Koch (M.Sc., FCII): Information asymmetries between reinsurance brokers and assignors
Session 2
a) Jörg Dirks (M.Sc., FCII): Unmanned aircraft – Evolution of the market for aviation (re-)insurance
b) Fabian Lassen (M.Sc., FCII): Reducing volatility through use of an insurance swap
c) Fabian Pütz (M.Sc., cand. PhD): Transferring cat risks from emerging markets from a macroeconomic perspective Session 3
a) Kai-Olaf Knocks (M.A., FCII): The ILS market in 2019 – discouragement or wait-and-see?
b) Lihong Wang (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): China InsurTech development
With the publication series, ‘Proceedings of the Researchers’ Corner’, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance meets the desire for publication of the research results of our scholars together with the accompanying posters and discussions. The titles are reproduced in keeping with the above agenda of the Researchers’ Corner for the 12th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. As part of the event, Prof. Materne also conducted an interview with Mr Ingo Wichelhaus (Senior Director, Mount Street) on the topic of risk management and portfolio management. Particular attention was devoted to the broad spectrum of risk for financing in the shipping sector.

The reinsurance market continues to face major challenges – at this point we would like to outline just two of these. While renewal of the reinsurance contracts as at 1st January 2019 was largely ‘riskadjusted flat’, renewal of the retrocession contracts was decidedly late. As at the date when this Annual Report 2018 went to press (2nd January 2019), the final trend is still not yet discernible. However, there are signs of a substantial hardening in prices and conditions in the retrocession area. Reinsurers, which are depend on the resource of retrocession capacity, would then be placed in an even more difficult position of increasing the price of retrocession, yet these additional costs cannot be passed on to the assignors under their active reinsurance contracts. Not least the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority [BaFin] is also certain to set its sights on this aspect in its analysis of the prevailing reinsurance price level, which has been announced for 2019. Of particular interest with regard to a potential determination of insufficient market conditions would also be the resulting reaction by BaFin (and the basis on which this would occur). A decisive factor for a possible strengthening of the retrocession market would be a changed attitude on the part of alternative capital, which in recent years already provided 50-70% of the retrocession capacity – and rising – via ILS funds and other mechanisms. Unlike traditional reinsurers, ‘innocent investors’ such as pension funds were increasingly nervous as a result of the high number of claims again in 2018 – particularly the California wildfires in Q4 2018 – as well as the drop in the fund share price of numerous ILS funds prior to the renewal at 1st January 2019.
A further substantial burden on the business climate lies in the utter ambiguity with regard to the modalities of Brexit on 29th March 2019. A no-deal Brexit would seem to be a real – and perhaps even a probable – alternative. This would create a large vacuum
in legal certainty by eliminating many EU-UK contracts and agreements. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research projects. In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through organisation
of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung], a bi-directional
transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance.
- 5 -
Currently, there are nine researchers and two employees responsible for science management on the staff of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all
material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance.
We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, ivwKöln [the Institute of Insurance Cologne] and the employees of the
Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.

The climate is changing and this increases the risk of climate threats, which is affecting the most vulnerable populations, mainly peasant farmers. In order to minimize impacts on these populations, interest has been aroused to develop strategies that increase their resilience to climate-related risks. This issue has been little addressed in Ecuador, despite the increased frequency and intensity of climate-related risks, which are directly affecting agroecosystems and farmers' livelihoods. This research addresses the resilience of farmers to climate risks in the canton of Pedro Carbo, an area located on the Ecuadorian coast of Guayas Province characterized by a high rate of poverty and dedicated mainly to agriculture.
The overall objective of this research was to carry out an analysis of the resilience of small farmers to climate risks, as well as to recommend adaptation/transformation strategies to increase their resilience to climate. For this, farmers' perceptions were considered, as well as the opinion of experts on the subject. Multiple methods were applied such as: literature review, map generation, household surveys, participatory workshops with farmers and interviews with experts. In addition, a multidimensional matrix was developed to analyze quantitative and qualitative data through indicators that measure resilience in the study area. The main findings in this research reflect that farmers have very low resilience due to their socioeconomic characteristics, agricultural practices, lack of infrastructure and technologies, weak community organizations, limited access to credit and insurance, as well as lack of capacity building and technical assistance. Finally, recommendations for strategies to support planning and decision-making were developed.
Keywords: climate-related risks, peasant family farming, resilience, resilience assessment, climate resilience, farmers perceptions, Pedro Carbo

While global food production greatly exceeds dietary energy demand, undernutrition remains, and diets largely fail to ensure the health of the population. Agricultural biodiversity is crucial for the world’s food security, but genetic diversity has been degraded. In Mexico, the dietary transition towards processed foods has contributed to malnutrition and a rise of diet-related chronic diseases. Mexico’s indigenous people are conserving and creating valuable plant genetic resources in their swidden milpas and traditional agroforestry systems but remain the country’s most vulnerable population group. The Teenek (or Huastec), an indigenous group that habitat the Huasteca Potosina, a region in north-eastern Mexico cultivate a high diversity of edible plants in their home gardens (solar), milpas, and agroforestry systems (te’lom, or finca). However, migration has been leading to the abandonment of traditional farming in the region.
The objective of this study was to analyse if the managed agricultural biodiversity of the different traditional land use systems contributes to the food security of the farming households in the community of Jol Mom. Food availability and access were investigated. In total, 40 households were surveyed. Dietary patterns were identified through principal component analysis. Informal interviews, semi-structured interviews and participant observation allowed to account for the people’s own perceptions and provided additional insights. Findings showed that traditional Teenek farming systems are the source of a variety of nutritious foods and resulted to be the most important provider of fruits and vegetables. The average production diversity was 34 out of 56 crops, farmers cultivating more than one or two farming systems showed an increase of four and 11 produced species respectively. Production diversity was strongly correlated with food variety in a household’s diet, with an increment of one per 0.85 produced crop. Two main diverging dietary patterns were revealed, a westernized diet relying largely on purchased foods, to which the younger generation was more inclined, and a traditional diet characterized by a high consumption of cultivated products, mostly observed in the older households.
In conclusion, farming households in Jol Mom profit from the agricultural diversity of their production systems, either through the consumption of nutritious foods or by the sale of agricultural products. However, a tendency towards nutrient-poor diets was observed. Increasing agricultural diversity and consumption of locally produced foods might help to fight this trend but would require a valorisation of traditional foods and an appreciation of the contribution of indigenous people’s traditional agriculture to food security.

The 11th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance (Förderkreis
Rückversicherung) on the topic of reinsurance was held 13 July 2018, in
Niederkassel near Cologne. Some 85 invited representatives of the (re)insurance
companies supporting the Sponsoring Group took part in the meeting, together with
guests. Offered for the fourth time as part of the Annual Meeting, the Researchers’
Corner gave eight members of academic staff at the Cologne Research Centre for
Reinsurance an opportunity to deliver a presentation on their respective individual
research projects.
Professor Materne also conducted interviews with Dr. Falk Niehörster (Climate Risk
Innovations) and Dr. Magnus Kobel (YAS.life). Dr. Niehörster reported on his
research and consulting activities in regard to maritime climate change and Dr. Kobel
on the business model of his InsurTec, YAS.life, and his general experience in the
establishment and development of start-ups.
In three sessions – each with 2-3 parallel lectures with posters – the most important
results of the scientific studies by the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance were
presented and discussed. The heterogeneity of the topics presented by academic
staff reflects the dovetailing of research theory with practice.

The reinsurance market is currently faced with great challenges and profound changes. Even after the large NatCat claims in Q3-2017, the substantial hardening of the reinsurance market for which reinsurers had hoped failed to materialise in the year-end renewal. Interest is now focussed on the renewal of retrocession agreements as at 1st April 2018. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research projects.
In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through organisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance. Currently, there are seven researchers and two coordinating employees on the staff of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, and the employees of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.

The 10th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance was held 7 July 2017, in Niederkassel
near Köln. Some 80 representatives of the (re)insurance companies involved in the Sponsoring Group took part in the meeting, together with invited guests. Offered for the third time as part of the Annual Meeting, the Researchers’ Corner gave nine members of academic staff at the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance an opportunity to deliver short presentations on their individual research projects. Professor Materne also conducted interviews with Messrs Lorenz Kielwein and
Frank Baumann. Kielwein reported on the application of mathematical systems theory to processes in change management, and Baumann on his 30 years of experience at Gothaer. During each of three sessions, three short lectures with posters were held in parallel and discussed afterwards. The heterogeneity of the topics presented by the staff members reflects the dovetailing
of research theory with practice.
In the sessions, the following speakers presented in German and English:
Round 1
a) Fabian Pütz (M.Sc.)
Alternative Capital and Basic Risk in the Standard Formula (Non-Life) of Solvency II
b) Manuel Dietmann (M.Sc.)
SFCR: Findings for Initial Publication
c) Jan Böggemann (B.Sc.)
Optimising the Purchase of Optional Reinsurance by an Industrial Insurer
Round 2
a) Robert Joniec (M.Sc.)
Actuarial swap
b) Lucas Kaiser (M.Sc.)
The Impact of Different Determinants on the Rating of Reinsurance Companies
c) Lihong Wang (M.Sc., FCII)
Chinese Automobile Vehicle Recall Insurance
Round 3
a) Sebastian Hoos (M.Sc., FCII)
Critical Analysis of the Practical Application of the Definition of an Event
b) Fabian Lassen (B.A.)
Employees in the Reinsurance Industry: Germany and the USA.
c) Kai-Olaf Knocks (M.A., FCII)
[Autonomous Driving: Evolution or Revolution?
The presentations also featured the work of another member of our staff who unfortunately, for
logistical reasons, was able to present his research project in poster form but was not able to deliver
a brief lecture.
Poster
d) Wolfgang Koch (B.A.)
Public-Private Partnership in Emerging and Developing Countries.
We would like to thank the funding bodies who make this event possible to begin with and provide our scholars an opportunity to conduct their research.

Soils are complex, evolving systems that simultaneously shape and are shaped by numerous biotic and abiotic factors in a vast web of interactions that creates the conditions for the propagation of life and the maintenance of human societies. Yet, land use and land use change (LULUC) and anthropogenic climate change (CC) are forcing substantial and rapid alterations into soil’s properties and processes, thus affecting the functions and services derived from it. The resulting land degradation (LD) is now spread, according to recent estimates, over nearly 30 % of the world’s total land, mostly on the population dense and impoverished tropics, a zone predicted to withstand the worst impacts of CC. The Atlantic Forest in Brazil is a particularly vulnerable environment, and the unusual drought of 2014-2017 that hit its Southeastern region is likely the harbinger of a progressively drier future.
The way the prelude of what might be an increasingly frequent hazard affected farmers’ livelihoods and natural resources, and the manner in which they reacted to those impacts can thus reveal points of strength and fragility that could be respectively harnessed or addressed to develop a more sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. This master thesis focused on characterizing those impacts and reactions on distinct dairy production systems in two municipalities in Northwestern Rio de Janeiro: Santo Antônio de Pádua and Cambuci. Through interviews and in loci observations, the researcher collected data concerning environmental services (erosion prevention, soil cover and water provision), production variables (inputs and outputs), socio-economic information, farm system management and farmers’ future perspectives. The results show that dairy production systems in the region are heterogeneous and, although they may share common characteristics, drought outcomes were closely tied to the specificities of each farm. Ultimately, outcomes originated from differences in water supply, water demand, and feed availability, their subsequent change by the drought and farmers’ reaction to those changes at each property.

As the number and intensity of environmental challenges increase, more faiths have initiated religiously motivated change within their communities or have been involved in cooperation projects with NGOs or GOs dedicated to conservation. Even though a lot of quantitative research had been done on the correlation of religiosity and concern for the environment, no scientific study dealt about the argumentation lines that drive or discourage believers to get involved in environmental conversation. As a basis for the research the Theory of Planned Behavior of Ajzen was modified into a model. By the means of Semi-Standardized Interview guidelines 15 members and leaders of different church communities in Amman were interrogated to retrieve meaning of and cause-effect-chains between the different components of the model. Their answers were coded and analyzed with cross tables to identify interconnections and their tendencies.
The results show that interviewees’ religious convictions about God and the world were the strongest influencer, whereas the community and leaders rarely gave a reason for people to adapt water saving measures. External factors such as governmental, societal, political or economic mostly discouraged people to adapt environmentfriendly behaviors. Approaches by the GIZ have already started catering to those challenges and potentials, however the range of impact did not reach until most of the interviewees.

The post-conflict setting in Colombia resulted after the signing of the peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the national Government at the end of 2016, faces two main problems. On one hand, the environmental degradation and the pressure over the ecosystems now exposed to the economic and socio-demographic dynamics of the country; and on the other hand, the increase of violence in rural areas characterized by the abundance of natural resources. These two problems can be linked through the complex dynamics of natural resources appropriation. Among the natural resources affecting the course of the post-conflict in Colombia, gold appears as one of the most relevant sources of violence and environmental degradation. This condition makes it crucial to understand the complex local dynamics of mining regions in order to propose alternatives for consolidating a sustaining peace. The armed groups, the state, the private companies, and traditional gold mining communities are all stakeholders involved in gold mining and the conflicts around this activity. Nevertheless, communities have been denied as a formal actor.
This work aims to give voice to those communities, understanding them as a key actor for peacebuilding. This research seeks to understand the relationship between gold mining and the social-armed conflict in Colombia, to identify which are the drivers for the increasing of this activity during the post-conflict, as well as which strategies developed by traditional gold mining communities can contribute to peacebuilding. Thus, an integrative analytical framework is developed. This theoretical framework integrates 1) environmental peacebuilding to evaluate the possibilities of natural resources to becoming tools for cooperation, and 2) political ecology to clarify, from a multi-scalar approach, the socio-political context in which the conflict takes place. Hence, from a qualitative approach that involves several ethnographic methods is found that artisanal-ancestral miners and traditional miners organized to remain in their territories in a context of dispossession, have developed socio-ecological systems and natural resources management strategies relevant to implement initiatives of environmental peacebuilding that can be sustained over time and aimed to overcome the structural causes of violence and environmental degradation.

Web browsers use HTTP caches to reduce the amount of data to be transferred over the network and allow Web pages to load faster. Content such as scripts, images, and style sheets, which are static most of the time or shared across multiple websites, are stored and loaded locally when recurring requests ask for cached resources. This behaviour can be exploited if the cache is based on a naive implementation. This paper summarises possible attacks on the browser cache and shows through extensive experiments that even modern web browsers still do not provide enough safeguards to protect their users. Moreover, the available built-in as well as addable cache controls offer rather limited functionality in terms of protection and ease of use. Due to the volatile and inhomogeneous APIs for controlling the cache in modern browsers, the development of enhanced user-centric cache controls remains -until further notice- in the hands of browser manufacturers.

Online services such as social networks, online shops, and search engines deliver different content to users depending on their location, browsing history, or client device. Since these services have a major influence on opinion forming, understanding their behavior from a social science perspective is of greatest importance. In addition, technical aspects of services such as security or privacy are becoming more and more relevant for users, providers, and researchers. Due to the lack of essential data sets, automatic black box testing of online services is currently the only way for researchers to investigate these services in a methodical and reproducible manner. However, automatic black box testing of online services is difficult since many of them try to detect and block automated requests to prevent bots from accessing them.
In this paper, we introduce a testing tool that allows researchers to create and automatically run experiments for exploratory studies of online services. The testing tool performs programmed user interactions in such a manner that it can hardly be distinguished from a human user. To evaluate our tool, we conducted - among other things - a large-scale research study on Risk-based Authentication (RBA), which required human-like behavior from the client. We were able to circumvent the bot detection of the investigated online services with the experiments. As this demonstrates the potential of the presented testing tool, it remains to the responsibility of its users to balance the conflicting interests between researchers and service providers as well as to check whether their research programs remain undetected.

STEPsCON 2018 was jointly organized by the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences of TH Köln (Germany) and the University of Oulu (Finland) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Leverkusen – Oulu town twinning. The conference focused on sustainability issues and covered the current state of research in four key topics:
1. Sustainable Medicine and Pharmaceuticals
2. Resources and Bioremediation
3. Sustainable Chemistry & Industrial Biotechnology
4. Innovative Materials & Formulations

For use in a landfill, a laboratory reactor for safe and environmentally friendly biological utilization of low-concentration methane gas will be further developed. The current principle of denitrification-coupled aerobic methane oxidation will be replaced by methane oxidation under anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic methane oxidation offers the advantage that, in addition to methane, nitrate also undergoes biodegradation. Another advantage is that the oxygen content can be significantly lower. This reduces the risk of the formation of an explosive atmosphere in the reactor. Currently, the principle of anaerobic methane oxidation is known. However, organisms capable of doing so are not yet available as a pure culture. Therefore, several biomasses were probed for the ability of anaerobic methane oxidation. It was found that moor-heavy sediment, activated sludge from the leachate treatment plant and biomass from the local biogas plant oxidize methane after the natural carbon source (C source) was been removed.

The synthesis of 17-hydroxy-oleic acid based oligomeric esters was investigated with immobilized Pseudozyma antarctica Lipase B and hexanediol as co-substrate. The effects of different reaction parameters on velocity and product composition at equilibrium conditions were analyzed. The synthesis of oleic acid esters was used as a reference system for initial evaluation of reaction parameters. The reaction with oleic acid and hexanediol was fastest at an enzyme concentration of 5% at 60 °C and high conversions of > 90 % were achieved in non-polar solvents in the presence of molecular sieves. In heptane an oleic acid conversion of 96 % was reached with a final diester to monoester ratio of > 4:1. In syntheses trials with 17-hydroxy-oleic acid the formation of oligomers was verified with GPC, however; conversion was generally lower than with oleic acid. Removal of hydroxyl fatty acid monomers and dimers and the formation ester functionalities could be verified by GC analysis. An increase of the degree of oligomerization was observed simultaneously by GPC analysis. The number-average molecular weight was around 1400 in the best trials corresponding to a degree of oligomerization of around 4 units of hydroxyl-fatty acid attached to a hexanediol core. Though transformations were not complete, the final oligomer size was in the lower range of polyester diols used for polyurethane manufacturing.

Due to the worldwide shortage of petrochemical based resources, the usage of renewable bio-based raw materials for established and novel products becomes increasingly important.[1] Such bio-based resources are already used for the fabrication of a variety of products, e. g. paper, lubricants, detergents or cosmetics. In the future they are expected to emerge in many more applications in industry and household.[1]
A very promising approach relies on the use of glycolipids as a source of hydroxy-oleic acid.[2] Microbial glycolipids are produced for instance via fermentation from natural resources such as plant oils and sugar.[3] After fermentation complex product mixtures are obtained with the composition depending on the microorganism, substrate and fermentation time.[3] The successful use of microbial glycolipids and hydroxy-oleic acid (HOA) derived therefrom as bio-based intermediates requires reliable analytical methods as well as robust manufacturing processes for the synthesis and cleavage of bio-based molecules. In order to obtain hydroxy-oleic acids as bio-based intermediates, the acidic cleavage of microbial derived sophorolipid was investigated. In addition the implementation of HOA in polyurethane (PU) systems was explored.

The introduction of Feed-in tariffs in the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) fuelled the growth of anaerobic digestion (AD) industry making Germany the country with highest number of operational AD plants. However, the rapid expansion of AD industry resulted in some unwanted side-effects such as food vs fuel debate, increased prices for electricity and the temporal mismatch between supply and demand of electricity grid. Subsequent amendments in EEG has tried to address some of these issues by reduction in Feed-in tariffs, introduction of a cap on cereal based feedstocks and providing premium for energy production in accordance with market demand. Furthermore, the Feed-in tariffs which were introduced for 20 years are soon going to expire. The changes in legal and political discourse is soon going to introduce some new challanges to the AD industry. This paper has discussed some of these challanges and their potential solutions.

The electricity network is undergoing a change due to reducing costs for renewable energy sources. Subsidy programs for renewable energy sources are changing and the funding available is being reduced. This will have an impact on anaerobic digestion which in some cases may struggle financially. Overfeeding is one of the most common mechanisms of inhibition in the process, and by shifting to intermittent feeding for on-demand production, this change will provide more information about the digestion process and could be used to detect the beginning of inhibition due to overfeeding. This paper discusses the shift towards intermittent production and how this change can be used to monitor the anaerobic digestion process.

Mutan- and alternansucrase were analyzed for their non-natural glucosylation potential with catecholic compounds caffeic acid and nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) as well as with non-catecolic p-coumaric acid and umbellic acid. Mutansucrase accepted both catecholic substrates and high glucosylation yields of 92 % with caffeic acid and 81 % with NDGA were obtained. The enzyme showed a clear regio-preference for the catechol 4-OH, which corresponds to findings from our previous work with Leuconostoc and Weissella derived glucansucrases. The substrate spectrum of the alternansucrase was broader and all substrates were successfully glucosylated with a preference for the catechols. Interestingly alternansucrase possessed a different regio-specificity. With caffeic acid the 3-O-α-D-glucoside was the major product. A similar substrate spectrum and regioselectivity pattern was observed in previous glucansucrase screenings only with glucansucrase from strain Weissella beninensis DSM 22752. Therefore it may be concluded that the W. beninensis enzyme is an alternansucrase type enzyme as well.

In the degradation of ammonia (NH4+) to gaseous nitrogen (N2), the nitrification is one of the two reaction steps. The nitrification itself is divided in two steps and is performed by two different types of bacteria. Current literature has shown that there are types of bacteria, which have the genetic equipment to perform both steps in one bacteria. Nevertheless, in wastewater and landfill leachate treatment, ammonia-oxidizing organisms (AOO) and nitrite-oxidizing organisms (NOO) occur as a symbiosis. The intermediate of the two consecutive reaction steps (NO2-, nitrite) is toxic. For this reason, both steps are necessary for the two bacterial groups. To determine the ratio of AOO, NOO and heterotrophic bacteria (which use organic compounds as carbon and energy source) the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) with selective inhibition with N-allylthiourea (ATU) and azide is used. In the inflow of a pilot plant in one street a step by step increased amount of a process water out of a fermentation plant was added to the landfill leachate. For comparison, the other street was supplied only with landfill leachate with the same amount of nitrogen. As a result, comparable values for the different bacterial groups and reproducible results were measured and lead to a better understanding of the analysed nitrification sludge. Deeper understanding of the behavior of the different groups will result in a reduce risk of malfunctions and a more stable operation in the wastewater or landfill leachate treatment plant.

The whole site of the waste disposal centre Leppe in Lindlar has been modified by the project :metabolon into an authentic learning site for knowledge transfer. Addressing all age groups, the project offers insights into environmental knowledge and explains contexts of resources and material flows. The site conditions allow practical outlooks on future energy systems. Following the meta theme of “lifetime learning”, pupils and students are addressed by different modules, considering their individual learning levels.

Aerobic microbial cultivations are industrially important group of processes and pose challenges for the reactor design. In particular, estimation of industrial scale conditions is difficult from laboratory and pilot scale data. Due to complex interaction of gas/liquid phase hydrodynamics, mass transfer parameters and microbial metabolism, both improvement of modelling tools and reactor design are desired. We present an approach to estimate growth conditions in industrial scale reactor by combining black-box metabolic models with CFD-model.
The reactor type used here is Outotec OKTOP9000®, which is used in the industrial hydrometallurgical processes at 900 m3 scale. It is adopted to a laboratory setting and compared to stirred tank reactor (STR) in gas dispersion, mass transfer and yeast cultivation experiments. In addition, a kinetic model for the yeast growth is developed based on literature sources and validated by the laboratory scale batch cultivations. This kinetic model is used along with CFD-model that is developed to describe the flow and mass transfer conditions in the industrial scale reactor.
The laboratory scale experiments show the feasibility of OKTOP9000® reactor when compared to STR, particularly with improved gas handling capacity. The modelling approach shows qualitatively similar behavior in the large scale simulations when compared to laboratory scale cultivations.

Before transporting the landfill leachate to municipal wastewater treatment plant it has to be treated in a landfill leachate treatment plant, as it comprises high concentrations of ammonium. The elimination of ammonium load in the leachate is usually done by the combined processes of nitrification and denitrification with a specially adapted biocenosis in the activated sludge (AS). For each of the steps, specialized bacteria such as Nitrosomonas, Nitrobacter and Paracoccus are used to transfer the ammonia to gaseous nitrogen. The aim of this investigation was to find suitable process parameters for a complementary treatment of fermentation water from a biogas plant together with landfill leachate. The processed water of the biogas plant consists of a higher concentration of ammonium and carbon sources or easily degradable volatile fatty acids. It can save the usage of external carbon source (acetic acid) and additionally it could also compensate the missing volumes of leachate in times of low rain and low leachate flows. To maintain the high workload for the existing leachate treatment pilot plant (LTPP), a combined treatment of landfill leachate and process water is also of economic and of ecological interest. The long-term adaption process of the biocenosis needs to be done step-by-step. Innovative process monitoring is needed to prevent biocenosis collapse. In our study, we present our set-up, a closer look at the ongoing experiment and the long-term changes in the biocenosis.

Pseudozyma antarctica Lipase B catalyzed esterification and transesterification in deep eutectic solvents (DES) was investigated in reaction systems with alcohols of different polarity. Coconut oil and crude biodiesel were deacidified successfully with non-immobilized CALBL and final acid values of 1.2 for biodiesel and 0.5 for coconut oil were obtained, while no esterification with ethanol was observed without DES. Water depletion of the lipid phase in the presence of water adsorbing DES causes this difference. Analysis of water contents revealed a 10 fold lower water content of the lipid phase in the presence of a second DES phase than in trials without utilization of DES. In contrast reactions of hydrophilic polyols are suppressed in the presence of DES. While the esterification of fructose and the transesterification with glycerol worked well in the polar solvent 2-methyl-2-butanol, almost no fructose esterification and a decreased transesterification with glycerol were observed in the presence of DES. Analysis of logP values of the substrates explains the substrate dependent differences in reactivity. The polar alcohols are probably bound strongly in the hydrogen-bonding network of the DES phase and are thus not available for lipase catalyzed reactions.

Modern industrial biomass combustion plants are regulated by the power and/or combustion control. In this process, the implemented sensors collect the relevant measured data. The aim is to achieve ideal combustion with optimum efficiency and to minimize gas emissions. For this purpose, a group within the research project Metabolon developed new regulatory procedures in order to record the combustion process of a biomass combustion plant using a webcam. The recordings were evaluated automatically and were used for a better monitoring of the process. In addition, the webcam-based method aims, among other things, to provide private homes with a cost-effective variant as an alternative to industrial system solutions.

In the last few decades raw material molasses, used in large scale fermentations in the production of bioethanol, citric acid, (baker´s) yeast and yeast extracts, has become more and more expensive. That is why agro-industrial wastes have become an interesting alternative. They are being produced in large volumes every day and represent a serious environmental problem considering its high organic content. The present contribution aims to demonstrate how waste products of wine production can be employed as substrate in bioethanol production. Cultivation of yeast and bioethanol production on molasses and grape pomace extract was studied in flasks in laboratory scale. This work should be regarded as an example of integrated sustainability which demonstrates how the waste from one industrial process is used as feedstock for another.

The southeast of Córdoba province used to be originally covered by hundreds of wetlands that got heavily modified or drained in the last few decades. Since wetlands provide various important ecosystem services (ESS) for human well-being, their degradation created several problems in La Picasa basin, among which floods are the most obvious one. The wise use of wetlands is increasingly acknowledged to be part of nature-based solution approaches reducing disaster risk. However, in the study area these approaches remain a relatively new concept to decision makers and the lack of knowledge on their effectiveness and implementation process poses a serious barrier to their adoption.
To overcome this obstacle, this dissertation applies an ESS perspective on the current problems of La Picasa basin and sets it in a context of socio-ecological system (SES) theory. A comprehensive analysis of (1) the role wetlands have played in the historic development of the SES, (2) important stakeholder dynamics that create opportunities or restrictions for the conservation of wetlands and (3) possible management approaches to inverse negative ESS trade-offs and feedback loops, was performed.
Results demonstrate that the current problems of floods have both natural and anthropogenic causes. In this regard, wetlands hold a vital role in the complex historic interactions between the social and ecological drivers of changes in the water balance. Although a social network between stakeholders exists, several conflicts prevent a proper functioning of a basin-wide integrated management concept based on wetland restoration. Nature-based solution approaches, putting wetlands in the center of attention of future management strategies, were found to hold a high potential to reduce the risk of floods and, as a side-effect boost biodiversity and habitat quality in the study area.

In the Mesoamerican forest Selva Maya, multiple driving forces create an imbalance in the sensitive human-nature relation and demand for innovative management strategies for its re-establishment. Within the Guatemalan Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), core areas are under strict protective legislation and agricultural activity is permitted only within a bordering buffer zone (BZ), which covers great part of the Guatemalan department Petén. Here, the implementation of agroecological practices by multiple stakeholders aims at tackling the principle driving forces of environmental degradation and thus at reducing the pressure on Central America’s largest tropical forest area. Since 2011, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has assisted local stakeholders by carrying out the project “Conservation and sustainable use of the Selva Maya”. This project has offered technical support, cooperated with national institutions, and assisted multiple target groups to nudge agroecological transitions at the household and community level. As the establishment of agroecological systems face main obstacles stemming from the socio-ecological setting of the respective area, the following work presents a context specific analysis for the adaption of established strategies in the MBR BZ. Therefore, it raises the following research questions: What are the current properties of the socio-ecological system that describes the BZ? How has the GIZ’s project nudged and guided agroecological transitions? Which factors have favored or limited the turn to agroecological farming? And finally: Which recommendations derive for the navigation of agroecological transitions? The overall research approach is orientated on the framework of ecosystem stewardship1 and incorporates elements of system theory and resilience science. The framework has been adapted by combining two approaches on different management levels. The social-ecological system approach2 is used to describe the socio-ecological system of the BZ, while the evaluation of the pilot groups‘ AESs follows the Mexican MESMIS3 approach for sustainability assessments. By the integration of both approaches, it is revealed that the socio-economic context impedes or hinders the implementation of agroecological strategies for the majority of farmers. The application of the MESMIS framework has revealed that the installed monitoring mechanism is dysfunctional. Findings further indicate that there is potential for transitions of individual AESs, but they demand investments and support with the current circumstances of reducing farmers’ vulnerability. The rapidly decreasing social and environmental conditions for family farmers in the BZ are most likely not addressed by solutions that the agroecological approach tackles. Recommendations for the immediate improvement of the strategy include adjustments of the project’s proceedings as well as fundamental changes in conservation paradigm and governance to maintain the necessary functionality of the socio-ecological system.

The ‘Energy Crisis’ has become the talk of the town in pretty much every developing and lower developing countries in today’s world. It is characterized by a state where the country’s locally available energy resources are being depleted and it is dependent on imported fuel. The problem is considered as although not parallel, but a descendant of the food crisis in terms of the seriousness of the problems in developing nations essentially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Ethiopia is one such country which nevertheless going through a rapid scale of development (nearly 11 % annual growth rate as of 2017 according to the World Bank) and also is endowed with an enormous amount of natural resources such as hydro, wind, solar, geothermal energy potential. The Ethiopian power sector is heavily dependent on the country’s hydropower resources. However, it needs to diversify its energy sector and integrate new and other renewable energy sources because, in the longer term, its extreme hydropower dependence may put its power sector vulnerable to natural risks like droughts which are very likely scenarios due to the climate change. Since the lack of access to modern forms of energy services left no choice for the Ethiopians than to continue their traditional biomass use, and it results in unsustainable environmental harm with deforestation, soil erosion, and many others. To address this issue, Ethiopia is taking necessary steps towards climate-friendly industrialization of the economy.
In order to understand this transition, a socio-technical analysis of Ethiopian ambitious transformation from an agrarian society to a climate resilient green society has been presented in this paper. An analytical framework will be formulated as a prerequisite for the study by introducing the theory of Multilevel Perspective (MLP). This theory enables the understanding of three different levels of socio-technical environment namely niches, regime, and landscape in which the respective actors interact with each other to facilitate the process of transition. As a part of laying the groundwork, this thorough analysis constitutes all the country’s energy-related activities and associated energy demands, conversion technologies, current fuel mix, primary energy resources, and energy policies in the Ethiopian energy system. The LEAP analysis results from Mr. Md Alam Mondal and group are summarized to obtain an understanding of the country’s total energy demand scenarios.
Consequently, the actors from each socio-technical level have been identified in the context of Ethiopia and their dynamics of interaction have been explained in order to understand the process of energy system transition of Ethiopia in the direction of diversification of its energy system and hence result in the expansion of new renewable energy sector. Most importantly the assessment suggests that the transition process is majorly driven by top-down forces and intra-level reconfiguration of regime actors. There are no bottom-up forces acting as only a little research and development work takes place in the country to develop new radical changes/technological niches. A developing country like Ethiopia has undoubtedly a bright future ahead with all systems in place and the nature-gifted natural resource potential. The ambitious goals set by the country and the international help from developed allies are definitely working in tandem to ensure their accomplishment. With its guiding vision towards development and the global climate change movement, Ethiopia surely has the potential to lead by example.

La Picasa basin, an interjurisdictional endorreic basin of 5282 km2 located in the “Central Pampa” in Argentina, has suffered repeated flooding caused by an increasing water level of La Picasa lagoon, affecting livelihoods, infrastructure, transportation and agriculture. Although water infrastructure has been built to regulate water excesses, it has not been effective in reducing the flood risk.
To improve the knowledge of the hydrological system, the master’s thesis aimed to develop a water balance model of La Picasa lagoon at a monthly time step between the hydrological years 2007/2008 and 2016/2017. Specifically, the objectives were to identify and quantify the most important components and processes determining its water level, area and volume and to propose hypothetical simulation scenarios based on different pumping operation schemes.
The description of the conceptual model and implementation of a sensitivity analysis allowed to identify the inflow and outflow components of the water balance and quantify their relative contributions, namely precipitation, water discharge from channels, surface runoff from surrounding sub-basins of the lagoon, evaporation and pumping. The performance tests applied to the model during the calibration and validation showed a very good performance. Additionally, two simulation scenarios were proposed, namely potential pumping and adjusted pumping, which reflected different trajectories of the water balance.
The master’s thesis concluded that precipitation and evaporation were the most determinant inflow and outflow components in the water balance of La Picasa lagoon respectively. However, the flooding event in 2016/2017 was caused by a simultaneous reduction of net evaporation and an increase in water discharge, surface runoff and intermittent pumping. The simulation scenarios suggested that an optimal operation of the pumping stations could have been effective to increase the storage capacity of the lagoon. However, during longer humid periods, it might not be enough to outweigh additional inflows.

REST became the go to approach when it comes to large scale distributed systems on, or outside the World Wide Web. This paper aims to give a brief overview of what REST is and what its main draws and benefits are. Secondly, I will showcase the implementation of REST using HTTP and why this approach became as popular as it is today. Based on my research I concluded that REST’s advantages in scalability, coupling, performance and its seamless integration with HTTP enabled it to rightfully overtake classic RPC based approaches.

Risk-based authentication (RBA) is an adaptive security measure to strengthen password-based authentication. RBA monitors additional implicit features during password entry such as device or geolocation information, and requests additional authentication factors if a certain risk level is detected. RBA is recommended by the NIST digital identity guidelines, is used by several large online services, and offers protection against security risks such as password database leaks, credential stuffing, insecure passwords and large-scale guessing attacks. Despite its relevance, the procedures used by RBA-instrumented online services are currently not disclosed. Consequently, there is little scientific research about RBA, slowing down progress and deeper understanding, making it harder for end users to understand the security provided by the services they use and trust, and hindering the widespread adoption of RBA.
In this paper, with a series of studies on eight popular online services, we (i) analyze which features and combinations/classifiers are used and are useful in practical instances, (ii) develop a framework and a methodology to measure RBA in the wild, and (iii) survey and discuss the differences in the user interface for RBA. Following this, our work provides a first deeper understanding of practical RBA deployments and helps fostering further research in this direction.

This project is focused on the generation of hardware independent code for PLCs and the comparison for energy consumption patterns of hydraulic and electric drive unit. This works is dedicated to MLC (mould level control) in a continuous casting machine, which is used to cast steel slabs continuously. The code generation is done with the help of the PLC coder which is present in the software Simulink. The programming is done entirely in MATLAB. The application of the generated code is tested on the Siemens S7-1500 PLC. For executing the code and the development of the HMI (human machine
interface) Siemens software TIA Portal V15 has been used. Moreover, for further analysis of signals and testing the code, a PDA or process data acquisition system, IBA system is used. For energy analysis also the IBA system is used.

Worldwide there is a big need for affordable livingspace. Globalization leads to a connection of development and ideas in the field of building. Open Source communities could improve and accelerate this development. The potential of theses communities lies in the connection of different diciplines. Especially for building projects with a small budget and a willingness to participate in the work process open source do-it-yourself constructions are a great opportunity to help cover the need of affordable work and living space. Renewable materials such as wood offer great potential here. New, standardised technologies make a decentralised production possible.

This paper summarizes the findings on marketing automation and suitable tools, especially for companies in the Start-Up and early development phases.
It is based on Nadine Männel's bachelor thesis, which was supervised by Prof. Dr. Monika Engelen from October to December 2018. In addition to researching the basic theory of Start-Ups and Marketing Automation, 12 tools were analysed for their usability in Start-Ups.
The core content of this paper is both to create an understanding of marketing automa-tion and to derive concrete recommendations for applicable tools for marketing automation.

Policy measures are essential tools for the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in the electricity generation. Feed-in tariffs (FITs) are the most used policy for support of renewable technologies globally. Nevertheless, Ecuador phased-out FITs in 2016 and adopted auctions in 2015. Ecuador’s implementation of auctions reflects an approach with little relation to practices in other countries and without a technology-specific design. On the other hand, Germany demonstrates a long trajectory in policy-making with vast experience in FITs. Moreover, in 2017 Germany adopted auctions as the official policy to support renewable projects with a scope larger than 750 kW. However, FITs are still in use and complement auctions.
This thesis analyses and compares the country-specific contexts where these policies are implemented through the lens of a multi-level perspective framework. As a result, the most important success factors in Germany have been identified: long-term planning, institutional continuity, legislative stability and principally an actively participating society, which is environmentally aware. Obstacles for the transition in Ecuador are institutional discontinuity, legislative inconsistency, the lack of long-term planning and absence of society as actors of the transition. Due to Germany’s pioneering role plus the successful growth of renewable sources during the last twenty years, their policy implementations appear desirable to adopt in other contexts. Therefore, a prospective transferability of the auction policy from Germany to Ecuador is additionally analyzed.

Observational studies and clinical trials have become increasingly important over recent years and play an essential role in advancing medical knowledge. In today’s world of clinical research, it is not possible to imagine trials without the founda-tion of a well-established it-infrastructure. Electronic capture and usage of data is pervasive.
In practice, medical progress requires the ability to integrate data from different systems. An essential factor in enabling different actors, such as institutions and hospitals, to have their systems exchange structured data and make use of the information is the interoperability of the data and systems.
FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resources) is a free and easily customizable HL7 platform standard, based on 30 years of experience of HL7. It is focused on providing health-related information and defines a set of capabilities used in the health care process.
This thesis will provide a conceptual approach for working with FHIR, as well as concrete approaches for working with FHIR profiles and for customizing the standard for particular use cases. It will be carried out in cooperation with the Medical Systems R&D, which is a service provider within the University Hospital of Cologne.
The guiding request approach will focus on the evaluation of requirements for clini-cal trials and how clinical research protocols can be represented in an interoperable and machine-parsable format using FHIR.

Ghana as a country in the west of Africa is naturally endowed with many rich natural resources some of which includes; Gold, diamond, bauxite, manganese, cocoa, etc. Currently, it’s the second leading producer of gold production in Africa after South Africa. Gold production has produced a lot of benefits to the nation but at the same time contributed to many negativities ranging from pollution (water and air), land degradation, ethnic conflicts and deforestation. Industrial gold mining itself was never a big issue that caused any panic in the country till illegal gold miners “Galamseyers” also commenced operating. The sole objectives of this research were to determine the level of some specific heavy metal (Mercury, Lead, Arsenic and Zinc) concentrations within the Offin River in Dunkwa-on-Offin, Buabenso, Ayanfuri and Nkotumso. Results after the research revealed that, Ayanfuri recorded the highest level of concentrations. Nkotumso followed in that order before Buabenso with Dunkwa-on-Offin recording the least concentrations. It also became clear later that, even though the degree of intensiveness of the illegal mining “Galamsey” operations could have been a main factor for the increased concentrations, another finding was that, towns or communities that recorded higher concentrations throughout the study also showed to be towns that made use of inorganic fertilizers on its farms. The Minerals and mining Act 2006 of Ghana was then analyzed and conclusion was that, though the country has very strong policies regarding illegal mining termed “Galamsey”, there seemed to be institutional loop holes that have not been strong enough to combat illegal mining in the country. In recommending policy directives to improve the river quality, six (6) institutions including the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology(MEST), Minerals Commission of Ghana, Environmental Protection Agency, Forestry Commission and the water Resources Commission were identified with detailed recommended roles clearly spelt out for each institution.

Objectives FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is an emerging Stan¬dard for improving interoperability in the domain of health care. Besides offering features for achieving syntactical, semantical and organizational interoperability, it also specifies a RESTful API for searching purposes. The main objective of the following thesis revolves around investigating open challenges and limitations of the so-called FHIR Search Framework.
Methods A variety of operations for searching in FHIR resources, including all search interactions, definitions of search parameters, search parameter types and advanced search concepts are described. Over the course of the thesis, a quality model based on ISO 25010 is established. It serves as the foundation for determining if the FHIR Search Framework is well-suited to cover the Information needs of its users. An analysis of completeness involving the measures defined in the quality model forms the main contribution. The primary discussion of the research questions is concluded by proposing a graph model for determining reachability between FHIR resources, essentially mirroring the chaining and reverse chaining functionality. Using well-known classes for expressiveness in graphs, the thesis assess to which degree a graph search can be formulated with the currently defined capabilities.
Results From a functional perspective the FHIR Search Framework can be considered well-suited. Practical limitations should be minimal, grounded on the fact that extensive coverage of the lowest expressiveness classes, RPQs and 2RPQs, can be achieved. Severe gaps where identified only in the support of C(2)RPQs and Data Path Queries. Additionally, ideas for improving non-functional aspects are introduced to support developers in learning the Standard and testing their implementations.
Conclusion The evaluation of the FHIR Search Framework showed promising re¬sults in terms of functional completeness. Yet, the Standard is still evolving, and certain parts of the Search API are neither well-known nor implemented widely. A discussion is to be held if the specification should cover more sophisticated aspects that result from the gaps which were identified.

Blogging has established itself as an important and influential part of the
modern online media. At the dawn of the blogosphere people were publishing
their diaries and life journals. Nowadays, some bloggers operate blogs that are
hardly any different from online newspapers and magazines. On the one hand
professional blogging is broadly accepted in the society, but on the other hand
it is poorly understood. The purpose of this explorative study is to broaden
the understanding of blogging as a professional activity. In particular, this
study explores the aspects of professional blogging and the interplay between
credibility, authenticity and monetisation in blogs.
To understand blogging as a professional activity an extensive literature
research is conducted. First, main concepts of blogging as a social activity
are discussed. Then, the changes that come together with the transformation
of a social activity into a professional activity of blogging are discussed. To
look at the activity of blogging from an unusual perspective, a comprehensive
qualitative survey is conducted with blog readers. The survey examines
not only readers’ perception of blogging as a professional activity, but also
motivations for reading blogs and attitude to monetising practices and labelling
of monetised content in blogs. Information received from the survey is used to
draw some conclusions about the state of the art of blogging as a professional
activity, and challenges and opportunities blogging industry faces nowadays.

The objective of this study was to evaluate at the local level in two municipalities of the Northwest Region of Rio de Janeiro State, the perception of smallholder farmers to climate change. Also, part of the study was to identify their measures to adapt, that include the preservation and mitigation of impacts on the regulating and provisioning soil ecosystem services, and their coping capacities to extended drought periods.

The Highland Plateau region, in San Luis Potosí, involves particular dynamics and needs from those presented within the rest of the state; its culture, vocation, mineral resources and territory, converge to give rise to a unique and particular region. The connectivity within the region has been decisive for its development, since two of the largest and most important national roads in go through this territory.
Despite comprehending about a half of the state's territory, this region has not managed to truly influence the state statistics neither economically nor socially; on the contrary, the employment rate has significantly decreased significantly, and also its population number.
Accordingly, this research aims to analyze the connectivity system within this region to strengthen and complement the development tools of these communities in a sustainable manner and, in this way, increase the welfare of the Highland Plateau population.
Throughout this investigation, it will be possible to understand how the location of this physical network, as well as for the use of resources for the satisfaction of the inhabitants, has been reflected in the communities within this region. Likewise, the statements made by state directors in charge of the economy, road network and social development within the region, will be studied. These statements will also be combined with a “functional grid analysis”, the connectivity between communities and their basic needs.

Plants have certain characteristics which allow them to respond to various environmental conditions, like changes in climate, water loss in the soil, lack of minerals; among others. In some of these so-called traits, the responses to climatic phenomena such as drought can be evidenced through morphological adaptations (spines, succulent tissues, trichomes, among others) or physiological adaptations (regulation of water potential at the cellular level, the concentration of nutrients, etc.)
In certain areas of Brazil such as the Mata Atlântica biome, drought events are increasingly occurring and affecting human activities and the environment, and it is required to understand if tree species with traits adapted to dry conditions are occurring in drought-prone areas. For this reason, it is intended to find out the potential of using morphological functional traits of woody species as indicators of dry conditions in the transition zone of the Atlantic Forest. RJ Brazil.
Therefore, this work was carried out considering a field phase in a drought-prone area known as “Mata de Tabuleiros” or Semideciduous Seasonal Lowland Forest that belongs to the domain of the Mata Atlântica, there were selected morphological traits in order to know which of them can give a hint as drought tolerant traits. On the other side, there was searched in the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden JABOT database for species with recorded characteristics related to drought adaptations. For the traits in the field, and the selected species from the database was elaborated a Species Distribution Model SDM in order to know how some climatic variables allow the distribution of species and morphological traits.
As main result there was elaborated a set of trait indicators that can be considered for further analysis in the region; and also the results of the SDM obtained at large scale for the Mata Atlântica for the species selected from the database, and the SDM for the traits analyzed in the field in the Mata de Tabuleiros. Besides that, the consultations with experts in the subject were an important input that allowed to carry out this research. The use of morphological and functional traits is important to understand the interactions between organisms and their environment, in this case, to cope and tolerate a climate phenomenon like drought.
Keywords: Mata de Tabuleiros, Drought tolerance, Morphological traits, Species Distribution Modeling

Food insecurity, poor nutrition and poverty are closely linked and entail adverse consequences for the health and well-being of children and adults. They constitute major constraints to development efforts as they can imply lifelong negative effects on human development with impairments on physical and mental capacities of a population, resulting in an overall lower productivity and economic growth potential.
Urban agriculture has been advocated as a strategy to improve food security. This paper exemplifies an urban gardening project that addresses food security and economic resilience of the Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese host communities executed in the suburbs of Beirut. The hypothesis underpinning this study is that urban agriculture holds the potential to contribute to increased food security and reduced urban poverty, by increasing the availability and accessibility to a variety of fresh foods that are rich in vital nutrients and by functioning as a source of livelihoods and income.
The brutality of the Syrian Civil War, it’s massive damage and destruction of housing and persecutions for ethnic cleansing led more than a quarter of its originally 24 million inhabitants to seek safety in neighboring countries and Europe. The war has severely hampered the stability and development throughout the region as hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring countries where they often compete with host communities over housing, labor, water, food and land. In relative numbers the biggest burden fell on the riparian country Lebanon, currently holding the highest ratio of refugees to nationals in the world. The small Arab country has already been suffering from many pre-existing challenges as food insecurity and widespread poverty.
The high dependence on food assistance, limited access to income and uncertainties on the amount of food aid provided in each upcoming year, all contribute to an unstable and low food security status of Syrian refugee households in Lebanon with spill overs to vulnerable host communities. In 2017, 91% of Syrian families residing in Lebanon remained food insecure to some degree and the share of household’s falling into severe food insecurity keeps increasing with every year.
These numbers provide clear evidence that current efforts of providing food assistance are not sufficient to combat the repercussions of the crisis and get the situation under control.
The paper displays the impact of the urban gardening project on the food security and economic resilience of participating household’s, as well as lessons learned on the project design during and after the implementation phase. The sampling frame is comprised of Syrian and Lebanese families participating in the project. Primary data were derived from a survey using a questionnaire with a sample size of 41 households. The findings aim to enable stakeholders to improve the performance of similar projects in the future and support relevant government authorities, international aid institutions, non-profits and the civic society towards creating sustainable long-term solutions to increase the self-reliance of refugees by providing insights of the suitability of UA for multiple objectives and by highlighting potential challenges and risks.

With a rapidly growing population and urbanization, most modern slums (favelas) also proliferated in Brazil since the 1950s when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved into the cities. Rio de Janeiro is one of those cities having a vast amount of favelas with poor living conditions. One of the main problems of electricity supply in favelas is illegal electricity use, called ‘Gato’ in Portuguese. Recent unexpected severe drought, economic crisis, and rapidly increased electricity price in Brazil affected the reliable supply of affordable electricity in favelas.
Considering abundant solar radiation of the country and the government’s willingness trying to shift the framework of energy supply from hydropower to renewable energy, this study analyzes the solar PV potentials to ensure a reliable supply of affordable electricity in favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
Literature reviews regarding solar PV development in Brazil, energy policy analysis in Brazil and electricity issues in favelas are revised. As a case study, the chosen favela ‘Babilônia’ is presented. The survey analysis about electricity consumption situation with social dimension targeting residences in Babilônia is implemented. Lastly, through economic analyses with cost-benefit calculation such as Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Net Present Value (NPV), Discounted Cash Flow, Payback period, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Weighted-Average Cost of Capital (WACC) models, this study develops the possible financing alternatives to implement a solar PV project with different scenario analyses in the current solar PV market and solar energy policy of Brazil.
The results of this study can be used as an aid to comprehend the electricity supply issue of the most vulnerable class in Brazil and the solar PV as a solution.

Since the development of eGovernment systems is gaining worldwide momentum, the European Union is constantly increasing its efforts to induce the development of eGovernment systems in its member states. The currently running strategy is the ’eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020’, which understands itself as a catalyst for developments in the member states.
Despite these ongoing efforts by the European Union regarding eGovernment, stud- ies are repeatedly revealing that the quality and acceptance by the citizens of dig- ital public services are varying heavily within the EU. Being based on the same political guidelines provided by the EU, the national strategies implemented the core principles to different degrees. These different implementation rates, analyzed for Germany, the United Kingdom and Estonia, supplement the holistic analysis of the eGovernment policies, applications and usage in each member state. This gets proven by the connection of this indicator with related studies in the field of eGov- ernment applications and usage within the European Union.
The aim of this thesis is, on the one hand, to quantify differences in the implementa- tion of the ’eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020’ into national policies in Germany, the UK and Estonia and, on the other hand, establish this indicator as a valuable asset for evaluating and monitoring the eGovernment efforts by the EU member states.

The goal of this bachelor thesis was the comparison of different learning methods in neural networks. The methods were applied to detect hate posts on social media plat-forms like twitter. To achieve this, a supervised Recurrent Neural Network and a self-supervised Word2Vec model were implemented. The results of both implementations show the importance of choosing the correct dataset and a learning method generating significant results. The problems of both implementations were identified and formulated into possible solutions to achieve more accurate predictions in future. This thesis is of high interest for students and developers in the area of sentiment analysis.